3/10/2017
Paralyzed Veterans of America Urges Protection of VA Specialized Services, CARF Standards in Private Healthcare, Enforcement of VA Staffing Capacity R
WASHINGTON, DC—Today Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans) National President Al Kovach, Jr. testified before the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees, urging support for Paralyzed Veterans’ top legislative priorities—ensuring that VA specialized care services are protected and that veterans with catastrophically injuries receive the “gold standard of care” wherever they seek treatment.
“VA is differentiated by its nationwide ‘hub and spokes’ framework and high standards defined by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities—also known as CARF,” stated Kovach. “CARF places emphasis on the needs of special populations by ensuring programs meet ‘patient-centered and state-of-art national standards.”
Kovach went on to say that evidence suggests not all rehabilitation centers in the private sector that claim to provide the gold standard of care are actually CARF-certified.
Kovach presented testimony on a group panel of nine veterans service organizations, presided over by House Veterans Affairs Chairman Phil Roe. While Paralyzed Veterans submitted eight core policy priorities for the Congressional year, President Kovach focused on VA healthcare in his brief oral testimony, opening with this statement: “We are among the most profoundly disabled, yet resilient, contingent of the veteran population, and with all of the legislative priorities we entered into the written record, none is more important to us than protecting the specialized system of VA healthcare.”
Approximately 29,000 veterans with spinal cord injuries are currently served by the VA, and VA remains the best provider of health care for veterans. VA’s specialized services, such as spinal cord injury care most often cannot be duplicated in the private sector, but VA has not maintained its capacity to provide for the unique health care needs of severely disabled veterans. “Over the past seven years, the VA has fallen short of its mandated staffing of bedside clinicians by operating at only 60 percent capacity,” stated Kovach. He urged Congress to enforce legislation passed last year (P.L. 114-223) that reinstated the annual capacity reporting requirement originally established by the “Veterans’ Health Care Eligibility Reform Act” (P.L. 104-262) in 1996.
Kovach ended his testimony by challenging Congressional members who are veterans to learn more about the quality healthcare offered at VA by seeking their care there. He stated, “If you want oversight of veteran healthcare, you need to have a little skin in the game.”
Article Credit: Paralyzed Veterans of America
